FLASH
Shkruar nga Alberto Bellotto
Following Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York, a new wave of socialist and progressive candidates is emerging in the US. Among former Ocasio-Cortez aides, pro-PAL activists, and veterans, the left is raising its head again...
The euphoria surrounding Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York has not yet died down. The American socialist left remains in turmoil.
In fact, the success of the new 35-year-old mayor of the Big Apple is ushering in a new era of war within the Democratic Party, with dozens of "liberal" figures aiming to become the "new Mamdans."
The first on this long list is Saikat Chakrabarti, 39 years old.
A former chief of staff to socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Queens, Chakrabarti is targeting a congressional seat in California's 11th district, the one in downtown San Francisco, which has been held for nearly 40 years by Nancy Pelosi, who has announced her retirement.
He shares many things with Mamdani: a prestigious education, in this case from Harvard, and an interesting career as an engineer in Silicon Valley with salaries approaching $50 million.
As an immigration lawyer, he proposed abolishing ICE, the agency Trump now uses for arrests and deportations. He supported Ocasio’s Green New Deal and fought Amazon over a fulfillment center in Queens.
Another candidate is Abdul El-Sayed, 41. A member of the Muslim diaspora in the Detroit metropolitan area, he narrowly lost the Democratic nomination for governor of Michigan in 2018 and will try again next year to become a senator. An ardent pro-PAL activist with troubling ties to Hamas and Hezbollah, he supports universal health care coverage but also higher taxes for billionaires. He is extremely harsh on MAGA people: "when they fly low, we don't fly high; we drag them in the mud and drown them."
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Further south, in Georgia, Ruwa Romman, a 32-year-old Palestinian and consultant for Deloitte, is seeking to become governor. Like El-Sayed, Romman is a leader of the pro-PAL movement that sparked outrage on American campuses in the spring of 2024. Actively involved in Mamdani’s campaign, Romman has a similar agenda: raising the minimum wage, “corporate homebuying,” and lowering rents.
Another sui generis “Mamdani” is Graham Platner. A 41-year-old veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, he lives in Maine and works as an oyster farmer. He launched his Senate bid to replace moderate Republican Susan Collins, and did so with an ad produced by the same studio that worked on Mamdani’s campaign. Platner’s social media approach combines the image of a working-class man from the American heartland with the demands of the new left, such as fighting the oligarchs. Speaking about himself, he has described himself as a “communist” and an “antifa supersoldier,” and in addition to universal health care, he proposes an unspecified tax on billionaires. Criticized by the media for a (now removed) Nazi tattoo and controversial online comments, his polls have risen week after week.
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Under the progressive umbrella, there is also room for influencers. Such is the case of Kat Abughazaleh, 26, with 6 million likes on TikTok. Abughazaleh is aiming for a seat in Illinois’ 9th district, on the outskirts of Chicago. In late October, she was indicted for blocking ICE vehicles outside a Chicago detention center. A Pro-Pal activist, she wants a tax on the wealthiest Americans to fund a $25-an-hour minimum wage and a revision of the Green New Deal.
Among those hoping to find a seat are Marxists, like Kshama Sawant. A Seattle city councilwoman, she was elected in 2013 as a representative of Socialist Alternative, a Marxist and revolutionary micro-group, and is now aiming for a seat in Congress. Another hopeful candidate for Mamdani’s support is Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy.
JFK's successor could run for New York's 12th district, inheriting the legacy of Mayor London, the socialist who was the second socialist representative ever elected in the United States.
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However, beneath the easy enthusiasm, many must remember that New York is not America and that the socialist recipe cannot take root everywhere.
Omar Fateh, dubbed by the American press as the "Mamdani of Minneapolis," knows something about this.
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Pushed by the socialist left to run for mayor, he lost to incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey, a moderate Democrat who led the city during the Black Lives Matter uprisings. /Adapted from Il Giornale/
Nese keni zene morra te kuq disifektim vetem me vajgur, asnje ilac nuk i ben derman vetem vajgur.